A fresh look at the origins and development of Islam, this is a fascinating reconstruction of the era of the first three generations of Muslims. Using a wealth of classical Arabic sources, it chronicles the lives of the Prophet Muhammad, his Companions, and the subsequent two generations of Muslims, together known as the "the Pious Forebears" (al-salaf... more...

Can life be too spicy? Suffering from an overload of turmeric and the complexities of growing up in an immigrant Bangladeshi family in Sydneys west, eleven-year-old Tanveer Ahmed thinks it probably can. And so begins an unpredictable, and very entertaining, double life  sampling the delights of Aussie cuisine, joining a cricket team that... more...

Despite numerous sources suggesting that Islamophobia is becoming both increasingly prevalent and societally acceptable in the contemporary world, there remains a lack of textual sources that consider either the phenomenon itself, or its manifestations and consequences. Chris Allen traces the historical evolution of Islamophobia to the present day,... more...

This balanced and sensitive study draws on a wide range of original sources to provide a scholarly yet highly readable account of the period, exploring the delicate interplay between religion and politics and the roots of the conflict that led to the Crisis of Succession and Sunni/Shii schism. more...

In July 2010, Terry Jones, the pastor of a small fundamentalist church in Florida, announced plans to burn two hundred Qur?ans on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Though he ended up canceling the stunt in the face of widespread public backlash, his threat sparked violent protests across the Muslim world that left at least twenty people... more...

The story of the origins of Islam provides a rich and suggestive example of sweeping cultural transformation. Incorporating both innovation and continuity, Islam built upon the existing cultural patterns among the peoples of the Arabian peninsula even as it threatened to eradicate these same patterns. In this provocative interdisciplinary study, Mohammed... more...

Literary scholars and Arabists from Europe, Israel, and the US set out their various, divergent, and often mutually exclusive theories about how Islam began. The dozen studies, all but one written for the anthology, are arranged in sections according to their primary source and focus: history and Sirah , Sunnah and Hadith , Qur'an and Tafsir , and more...

The object of this book is to suggest certain lines of thought as to the deep truths underlying Christianity, truths generally overlooked, and only too often denied. The generous wish to share with all what is precious, to spread broadcast priceless truths, to shut out none from the illumination of true knowledge, has resulted in a zeal without discretion... more...

Death consists in a repeated process of unrobing, or unsheathing. The immortal part of man shakes off from itself, one after the other, its outer casings, and - as the snake from its skin, the butterfly from its chrysalis - emerges from one after another, passing into a higher state of consciousness. Now it is the fact that this escape from the body,... more...